Fubar

I've been meaning to write about Fubar for a while, but somehow keep on failing to get around to it. (And I've been meaning to ask the owners for my royalties, but somehow keep on failing to get around to it.)

There are a lot of things about it that don't quite work for me (not the least of which is that it's in the Sanlitun area, and I hardly ever go there), but it is the best of the year's new bar openings, and is enticing me in whenever I am over in that part of town (an ideal pre- or post-Bookworm drop-in).

Its USP, of course, is that it's a "speakeasy" - concealed entrance, no publicity, strictly a word-of-mouth kind of deal. Now, in general, I find the speakeasy craze which has overrun America in the past few years to be pretentious and irritating (you may remember my diatribe this summer against the would-be super-trendy PX cocktail lounge in Alexandria, VA): usually the pretence of 'exclusivity' is just being used to jack up the prices to stupid levels. Here in Beijing, though, I am willing to indulge the concept, to welcome the novelty - even a certain quaintness - of it. And Fubar's prices are not unreasonable.

The considerable pluses include the drinks list (all genuine booze, and a range of different brands for the standard spirits; a small but good selection of single malts; a short but good list of classic cocktails, with a few surprisingly effective inventions of their own [that one where the unlikely combination of Tsingtao and orange juice ends up tasting like grapefruit is very more-ish!]), the prices (much keener than their chief competition, Apothecary and Q, even at the regular tariff; decidedly alluring on 'happy hour'), the music (played at an appropriate volume, and [mostly - there have been aberrations] classic jazz and blues), the friendly welcome of the owners Chad and Kevin, and (yes - sexism alert) cute female bar staff in neat black uniforms.

Ah yes, the Happy Hour. It's not completely happy - variable and non-standard price reductions, considerably less than 50% off - but still, the discounts are large enough to make it the most economical place to drink in the neighbourhood early evening. Their standard Happy Hour runs until 9pm, but they've recently introduced an ingenious 'Headhunter' promotion (for the slow first half of the week) where they'll extend it by an extra half-hour for every ten people in the bar at the end of the regular discount period - a good excuse to phone up your mates and get them to join you. Chad has been very generous in his headcounts, and the last couple of times I was in on a Tuesday night, the Happy Hour went to 10pm or later, even though there were really only a handful of people in. Also, I hear they've recently started opening in the afternoon (at 2pm or 3pm?), with Happy Hour prices all the way through till 9pm (they used to only open from 6pm, and there was never anybody there before 7pm).

On the downside, though..... there's the unappealing location - hard to find, inside the Worker's Stadium complex, quite a little trek from anywhere else you might be visiting in the neighbourhood (and, of course, it's been subject to numerous hassles and forced closures this year during rehearsals for the October 1st celebrations; I hope the new football season won't be similarly disruptive). The decor - nice muted colours, but very bare: they need some soft furnishings in there, and something on the walls, even if it's just a FU (福) symbol. The light array over the bar - I think they've toned down the brightness a bit on my last few visits, but it's still a bit overpowering near the bar (you can see the neon strips blazing through the shade); and some people find the design of the lightshade itself (a huge sort of Art Deco stepped pyramid affair) a bit unsettling, looming over you like a sword of Damocles (it doesn't bother me, but I've heard it said). And the bar itself - that, I'm afraid, is my main gripe: it is way too high for standing or sitting comfortably at (it's almost at armpit-height - and I'm a tall guy); it creates too large a barrier between you and the staff, it's impersonalizing (you can hardly see the diminutive barmaids over the top of it); and, worst of all, it creates the problem that you can't see your drinks being made (I think I trust Chad and Kevin and their staff to be using full pours; but even so, in Beijing there isn't usually that trust, and you get used to being allowed to watch what and how much is going into your drink; having the drinks mixed on a low counter behind the bar rather than on the bar itself seems surreptitious, underhanded).

Fubar deserves to succeed - it's a cosy little spot, serving good drinks at sensible prices; and Chad and Kevin are a likeable pair who are really committed to trying to do things right. That bar, though, is for me a big, big problem. I would be inclined to rip it out and replace it with something a good 6" or 8" lower. Either that or (possibly simpler, but apt to create a trip-and-fall hazard) build a platform, a raised cement step on the customer side. (Hmm, that still wouldn't solve the problem of the staff not being able to see over the bar, or mix the drinks on it; you'd need to build up their side of the bar too - probably by at least a foot. No, I think basically that bar has to go.)

They only opened up over the summer (when I - and most of laowai Beijing - was away), and then had a pretty miserable September and October of random closures imposed by the government. You might say they've only been properly open and running smoothly for 8 or 10 weeks. The custom seems to have been growing slowly but steadily during that time, and I'm told they've had a few very big weekends (I wouldn't know; I much prefer having the place almost to myself on a quiet midweek early evening). I wish the guys luck in building on that success in the year ahead. But I hope they change the bar.